Evensong And Literature -- January 29, 2025

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In the last couple of days, Ripon Cathedral has been featured on the blog. Tonight, I'm watching / listening to (on YouTube) Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral, something I find very enjoyable, relaxing, soothing.

When in Yorkshire, northern England, for weeks and sometimes months on end, I found it incredibly rewarding to attend evensong in one of the local / regional cathedrals. As mentioned earlier, Ripon Cathedral was 16 miles / 24 minutes away, and that's where I most often attended Evensong. When I went to Evensong at Ripon Cathedral I was struck by the fact that if there were 75 folks in attendance, 45 were church participants, most members of the choir(s). Of the remaining thirty, twenty-five were generally older, grey-haired, and of a different generation than my generation. Of the remaining five, there were two of us from an American military unit stationed overseas. And that was it. The population of Ripon is 16,000 and probably serves an area or region with a population of 30,000 and yet a most incredible setting and a most incredible service brought in many seventy-five folks.

The same is true of Canterbury Cathedral Evensong. It appears not more than seventy people are in attendance, and fifty are church members participating in the proceedings. Absolutely free, no standing in line, welcomed by all, and a wonderful beef Wellington before heading home. The service lasts approximately 35 minutes and it's mostly the choir.

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The Literature Page

I don't think I've ever read a word of Charles Dickens. I had been told he was impossible to read or impossible to enjoy or impossible this or impossible that.

And I was told his books and his writing went on forever and forever.

So tonight I find myself reading Charles Dickens for the first time ever. It's a long story why I started. Suffice it to say, I am (reading it).

So, I'm reading Bleak House.

It was released by Charles Dicken, 1852 - 1853, in installments, one or two installments once a month over nineteen months or maybe more often than once a month, but from beginning to end, twenty installments were released over nineteenth months. 

I read the first chapter earlier this afternoon. It took about twenty minutes and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are sixty-seven (67) chapters. 817 pages. To put that in perspective, The World According to Garp, which I also started reading this past week, is 503 pages.

I found the first chapter incredible. Wow, it was nothing like I expected. I truly enjoyed it. And that's the problem with American education. Students are expected to read it during a semester of literature, along with a ton of other reading. It's impossible. They're not reading it. They scanning in. They're reading it enough to meet the minimum requirements set by the professor or the teacher. 

I may or may not finish the book. But I will read it the same way the folks read it in 1852 - 1852 -- one or two installments each month, or perhaps slightly more often.

817 pages / 19 months = 43. So about 40 - 50 pages at least once a month.